Walter Isaacson

Tulane University

Author and Professor of History

Walter Isaacson, Professor of History, Tulane University, is also Advisory Partner at Perella Weinberg. He is the past Chief Executive Officer of the Aspen Institute, and is now a Distinguished Fellow, and has been the Chairman of CNN and Editor of TIME Magazine. Mr. Isaacson’s most recent biography, Leonardo da Vinci (2017), offers new discoveries about Leonardo’s life and work, weaving a narrative that connects his art to his science. He authored The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014), Steve Jobs (2011), Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), and Kissinger: A Biography (1992), and co-authored The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986). Mr. Isaacson is a host of “Amanpour and Company” (PBS and CNN), a contributor to CNBC, and hosts the podcast “Trailblazers, from Dell Technologies.” Mr. Isaacson is Chair Emeritus of Teach for America. From 2005 to 2007 he was Vice-Chair of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, which oversaw rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. Appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate, he served as Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors from 2009 to 2012. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of the Arts, and the American Philosophical Society. He serves on the Board of United Airlines, the New Orleans City Planning Commission, the New Orleans Tricentennial Commission, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Society of American Historians, the US Defense Department Innovation Board, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and My Brother’s Keeper Alliance. Mr. Isaacson holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and a degree from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.